you can hear John Henry’s hammering.” At the beginning of the ballad, Alston said that John was born in the 1840s with “a hammer in his hand,” causing his mother considerable pain during childbirth.

While every movie fan knows John Wayne (True Grit is a milestone in American cultural literacy), A Big Hand for the Little ...

The 25th annual John Henry Days, to celebrate the legend of how John Henry beat the steam drill, is celebrating over three days, July 8-10, featuring live music, a parade, a 4-mile run, various ...

And when big John Henry had dug five feet ... “who died with a hammer in his hand. Hammers of steel rang out!” This story reminds us about the dangers of the difficult and important work ...

After Carolyn Krause heard Charlotte Blake Alston at the recent Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival tell the story of John Henry ... carving a big hole part of the way through it.